1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing device and a printing method, and relates more particularly to a printing device and a printing method for printing on the surface of paper or other print medium.
2. Related Art
Line printers and serial printers that can print on different types of print media, including paper, cloth, and film, are known from the literature. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2004-34469. One type of serial printer is an inkjet printer that has a transportation mechanism for conveying the print medium in a primary scanning direction, and a print head for printing on the print medium by reciprocally scanning the print medium in a secondary scanning direction while discharging ink onto the print medium. As a result of the print head executing the printing operation and the transportation mechanism executing the paper feed operation based on print data, the serial printer prints the print data for markings such as text and images one batch at a time in the secondary scanning direction (line direction) on the printing surface of the print medium. The print head of an inkjet printer is generally mounted on a carriage together with an ink cartridge, and the carriage travels bi-directionally in the secondary scanning direction over the print medium.
Logic-seeking control is one method used to move the print head more efficiently in printing operations. Logic-seeking control analyzes the print data to find white space (blank spaces), and skips over white space when moving the print head to the next print area. In order to print the next print area after the print head finishes printing one print area, another method moves the print head to the line end in the next print area that requires the print head to travel the shortest distance.
The time required for printing (the throughput) can be improved by using such a logic-seeking control method.
Depending upon the relative positions of the print areas, however, throughput may not be improved even when logic-seeking control is used. As a result, JP-A-2004-34469 discloses a method of moving in a short time from a stop-moving position where the print head stops after finishing printing one print area to a start-moving position where printing the next print area starts. However, because this method selects from among a limited number of optimal travel directions and travel speed settings from the stop-moving position to the start-moving position, improvement in the overall throughput of one print area and the next print area is limited. More specifically, the distance required for the motor and other components that move the print head to accelerate and decelerate is not considered.